A qualitative study on rural women's experiences relating to the utilisation of birth care provided by skilled birth attendants in the rural areas of Bongo District in the Upper East Region of Ghana.

Publisher: BioMed Central Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 100967799 Publication Model: Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1471-2393 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 14712393 NLM ISO Abbreviation: BMC Pregnancy Childbirth Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: London : BioMed Central, [2001-

Delivery, Obstetric*/methods ; Delivery, Obstetric*/psychology ; Midwifery*/methods ; Midwifery*/standards ; Patient Acceptance of Health Care*/psychology ; Patient Acceptance of Health Care*/statistics & numerical data ; Professional-Patient Relations*; Maternal Health Services/*standards; Adult ; Female ; Ghana/epidemiology ; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice ; Humans ; Needs Assessment ; Pregnancy ; Qualitative Research ; Rural Health Services/standards ; Rural Population ; Socioeconomic Factors

Background: Increasing skilled attendance during childbirth is well established in literature to play a significant role in averting the many preventable maternal deaths that occur in developing countries such as Ghana. Inadequate utilisation of skilled birth care services in Ghana is believed to be a major hindrance to efforts aimed at improving the health of women, especially during delivery. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the experiences of rural women regarding the utilisation of skilled birth care provided in the rural areas of Northern Ghana.
Methods: The study adopted a qualitative, exploratory, descriptive research approach, whereby individual interviews, observations and field notes were used to obtain a thick description of women's experiences regarding the utilisation of skilled birth care services in the rural areas in Ghana. A purposive sampling approach was used to select 20 women who utilised skilled birth care in the rural areas of Bongo District of Ghana. Data collected from the interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed to identify themes.
Results: The study identified three themes: The women had negative interactions with skilled birth attendants during delivery; women lacked confidence in skilled birth attendants' abilities; skilled birth attendants disrespected the traditional beliefs of the women.
Conclusion: Most of the participants had negative experiences regarding the utilisation of skilled birth care. There is thus a need to develop strategies that could help address the above concerns of women to facilitate utilisation of skilled birth services in the rural areas in Ghana where there is low utilisation of skilled birth care.

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Keywords: Experiences; Labouring women; Rural areas; Skilled birth attendants; Skilled birth care; Utilisation

Date Created: 20190608 Date Completed: 20191223 Latest Revision: 20200225

20240513

PMC6555728

10.1186/s12884-019-2337-0

31170945